The Tonton Macoutes: The Central Nervous System of Haiti’s Reign of Terror – COHA COHA 8369 10 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2F A Malediction on Haitian Society Few countries in the hemisphere have suffered through such an extensive run of unqualified repressive regimes and military dictatorships as Haiti. The nearly thirty years of harsh rule under François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, and his son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier that ended in 1986, are likely the most infamous epoch in the painful history of this small French-Creole nation that occupies the western third of the Caribbean island of La Hispaniola. Certainly, the main tool for the maintenance of the regime’s grasp on the population through much of this period was the “Tonton Macoutes,” renamed in 1971 as the Milice de Voluntaires de la Sécurité Nationale —MVSN (Volunteers for National Security). Although this organization no longer formally exists, its legacy of paramilitary violence and sheer brutality still contorts Haitian modern political and economic cultures.

The Birth of Terror In 1959, only two years after becoming president, “Papa Doc” created a paramilitary force that would report only to him and would be fully empowered to use unremitting violence to maintain the new administration’s authority to summarily dispose of its enemies. This marked the birth of one of the most brutal paramilitary organizations in the hemisphere and was justified by the leader’s profound paranoia towards the threat posed by the regular armed forces. Haiti’s military began to steadily lose a great deal of authority with the consolidation of the François Duvalier regime, which it would not recover until 1986, when the pressure coming from senior military officers played a major role in the fall of Jean-Claude. A spate of coups followed, with military figures occupying the vacancy left by “Baby Doc.” The Haitians nicknamed this warlord-led goon squad the “Tonton Macoutes,” after the Creole translation of a common myth, about an “uncle” (Tonton) who kidnaps and punishes obstreperous kids by snaring them in a gunnysack (Macoute) and carrying them off to be consumed at breakfast.

Consequently, these torturers, kidnapers and extortionists were feared not only by children, but also by the country’s general population, as well as by opposition members and business men not willing to make enforced pay-offs to the authorities. The militia consisted mostly of illiterate fanatics that were converted into ruthless zombie-like gunmen. Their straw hats, blue denim shirts, dark glasses and machetes remain indelibly etched in the minds of millions of Haitians. Ever since its establishment, this brutal organization had free rein to act unreservedly, disregarding any ethical or civil rights of the citizenry that might interfere with its indiscriminate violence. They were not accountable to any state branch, court or elected body, but rather only to their leader, “Papa Doc.” The Second Most Feared Man in Haiti The dictator’s hold on power was guaranteed by the secret police’s terror campaign, and usually, the head of the “Macoutes,” was considered to be extremely close to the dictator. This was especially true under President François Duvalier.

Luckner Cambronne was a particularly fierce head of the “Tonton Macoutes” throughout the 1960’s and the beginning of the 1970’s, for two reasons: first, because he was considered perhaps the most powerful and influential man in Haiti during the transition from “Papa” to “Baby Doc,” and second, because of his unique brand of cruelty that enabled him to become very rich and earned him the nickname “Vampire of the Caribbean.” As a result of his close relationship with “Papa Doc,” Luckner climbed rapidly up Haiti’s power structure and he became the chief plotter of the extortions carried out by his henchmen. Later, he profited by supplying corpses and blood to universities and hospitals in the United States. His brutality was manifest whenever there was a shortage of what he considered raw material (corpses). In that case, he did not hesitate to kill innocent people to facilitate the growth of his “industry.” In 1971, following an altercation with the Duvalier family regarding his role in post-“Papa Doc” Haiti, Luckner fled to Miami.

Nevertheless, he remained an ardent supporter of the Haitian regime until his death in October of 2006. He stated once in the British newspaper The Independent that a “good Duvalierist is prepared to kill his children (for Duvalier) and expects his children to kill their parents for him.” This sentiment displays the rationale of the “Tonton Macoutes,” a goon squad, which was fiercely loyal to but one family and not in any way in the service of the nation or its people. Even though there are some MSVN leaders that were never formally identified in the recent history of Haiti, such as Roger Lafontant, they all are clear examples of the power that the organization and its leaders had and continue to possess to one degree or another, in contemporary Haiti. Mysticism and Reality A key characteristic of the structure of the MSVN was that some of the most important members of the “Tonton Macoutes” were vodou leaders, with this belief system currently practiced by roughly half of the country’s population.

This religious affiliation gave the “Macoutes” a sense of unearthly authority in the eyes of the public, which allowed them to perform horrific acts without any form of retribution from the Haitian population at large. What this means is that “the ‘Tontons Macoutes’ were part of a conscious strategy to identify spiritual forces and nationalism with loyalty to Duvalier, and to instill fear in [his] opponents.” From their methods to their choice of clothes, vodou always played an important role in their actions. However, despite the religious nature of vodou, the facts as well as the numbers speak for themselves. These merciless killers murdered over 60,000 Haitians and many more were forced to flee their homes. Consequently, Haiti suffered an unparalleled and crippling brain drain that robbed the small country of many of its most educated citizens. The militia created a sense of fear through continuous threats against the public as well as frequent random executions. The “Tonton Macoutes” often stoned and burned people alive, regularly following such rites by hanging bodies of their victims in the street as a warning to the population at large. The diversity of the victims was also a measure of the “Macoutes’” cruelty.

They could range from a woman in the poorest of neighborhoods who had the temerity to support an opposing politician, all the way to an accommodating foreign diplomat or even a business man who refused to “donate” money for public works (the public works being the pockets of corrupt officials and even the dictator himself). The Role of the U.S. For decades, the situation in Haiti kept deteriorating without any calls for international intervention. Although the United States was a preeminently active and interested participant in the development of Haiti’s political culture, it failed to speak out against such atrocities—not even during human rights-focused administrations such as Jimmy Carter’s—as a result of Cold War logic. Washington was certainly far more interested in supporting a pro-American tyrant whose purported task was to stop the spread of communism in the region, rather than protecting the Haitian people by supporting a healthy democracy and a responsible authority in Port-au-Prince. Butch Ashton, a business man who made his fortune during the Duvalier dictatorship by establishing corporations such as Citrus (a fruit exporter) and the Toyota dealership in the country’s capital, vehemently claims that the Tonton Macoute militia was trained by the U.S.

Marine Corps and that the highest levels of the American government were complicit in this arrangement. The U.S. has been an active supporter, albeit from the shadows, even years after the “Tonton Macoute” reign of violence officially was over. The Human Rights Watch reported on Haiti in 2004 and stated, “The United States, notably, showed little enthusiasm for the prosecution of past abuses. Indeed, it even impeded accountability by removing to the U.S. thousands of documents from military and paramilitary headquarters, allowing notorious abusers to flee Haiti, and repeatedly giving safe haven to paramilitary leaders.” The “Tonton Macoutes”: Legacy and Transformation The darkness of the “Tonton Macoutes” era may have seemed to subside upon the official dismemberment of the organization, which occurred after “Baby Doc” fled Haiti for France in 1986. However, massacres led by paramilitary groups spawned by the Macoutes continued during the following decade.

After 1991, when Aristide was illegally forced to leave the presidency, the vestiges of the MVSN became known as “attachés,” or savage groups of vigilantes attached to government security forces, or crooked political organizations which had the ability to use force against its foes. Consequently, a number of small paramilitary bodies were organized to work with these mafias as “stability” keepers. A good number of these new bodies were being formed by former “Macoutes.” Many of these militias remained nostalgic for the good old days of Duvalierism, with some even attempting to ignite their own reign of terror. The most feared paramilitary group during the 1990’s emerged as a political presence just as sadistic as the MVSN: the “Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti—FRAPH,” which Toronto Star’s crack journalist Linda Diebel described as modern-Macoutes and not as the political party they claimed to be. The reporter declared that the FRAPH, under goon figure Emmanuel Constant, was even worse than the Duvalierist militia because it was no longer subordinate to one absolute authority.

The FRAPH also cooperated with the regular army to persecute Aristide’s followers; this made them even more dangerous than the “Tonton Macoutes”, because in the old days the militia and the legal armed forces were more rivals than allies. This paramilitary group also extended its influence far outside La Hispaniola to diasporas throughout the world, “Fraph also had a presence abroad, with offices in New York, Miami, Montreal and other cities with large Haitian exile communities.” These ghosts from the past still torment Haitian and U.S. policy: last year a group of civic activists accused the Obama administration of turning a blind-eye to the criminal activity being practiced against Aristide backers and supporters of his Fanmi Lavalas party. The group that was trying to prevent the participation of Haiti’s most popular party in the 2010 elections through the use of indiscriminate violence and political pressure was led by a former paramilitary leader convicted in the U.S. for drug trafficking and money laundering, Guy Philippe. There a long history of paramilitary violence in Haiti that seems all but unstoppable, regardless of whatever government may be in charge.

As Professor Robert Maguire observed in 2002, “the unabated power struggle among the country’s politicians has been joined by a renewal of the kind of paramilitary violence that the vast majority of Haitians hoped had ended with the disbandment of the Haitian Armed Forces in 1995.” But there are some other issues that feed the existence of the paramilitary phenomenon: these factors include drug trafficking, rampant poverty, demoralized police forces, and the primacy of the interests of the elite. All of these factors explain why the remnants of the “Tonton Macoutes” are still a very important part of Haiti’s political and social heritage, even as they and their descendents continue to fragment into small groups with different interests, maintaining their penchant for violence and chaos.

Tonton Macoutes (Milice Volontaires de la Securite Nationale - MSVN) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed Tonton Macoutes (Milice Volontaires de la Securite Nationale - MSVN) Back to Online Encyclopedia Index Image Ownership: Public Domain The Milice Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale (MVSN), or the (Militia of) National Security Volunteers was a Haitian paramilitary force founded in 1958 to defend the autocratic and corrupt regime of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier . The MVSN, commonly known as the Tonton Macoutes, was notorious for corruption and brutality. In Haitian Creole mythology, Tonton Macoutes was a bogeyman who kidnapped errant children in the night and stored them in his knapsack. Those who were kidnapped, it was said, were never seen again. Appropriately, the name was applied to the MVSN when many Haitians who spoke out against Duvalier's increasingly corrupt regime were frequently kidnapped in the middle of the night and would disappear forever.

After surviving an attempted coup in 1958 and growing increasingly paranoid, Duvalier reorganized the existing Haitian army by firing generals and transferring the army's weaponry and ammunition to the palace. In control of the country's military resources, Duvalier created a loyal force of armed men that became his personal militia, the Tonton Macoutes. Duvalier's long-time friend Clément Barbot recruited and administered the militia until 1960, when Duvalier arrested him on suspicion of dissent. By 1963, the Macoutes were under Duvalier's personal control. It is estimated that in 1959, as many as 25,000 Haitians were members of the Tonton Macoutes. The majority of militiamen were black. Their trademark attire was dark glasses, expensive clothes, and gun-filled holsters. While some of the militiamen were peasants or houngan (localized voodoo priests) who already commanded the respect of their community, many poorer militiamen capitalized on their newfound powerful position. The Tonton Macoutes terrorized the local population, stealing land and money and raping women.

But while self-interest prevailed, the Macoutes also served to create and bolster recruitment, mobilization, and patronage for Duvalier's regime. When Duvalier's son, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier , succeeded his father in 1971, he asserted that the Tonton Macoutes would remain the country's militia. They continued to terrorize, spreading out further into the countryside. By 1986, however, it was apparent that the militia's loyalty to "Baby Doc" had faded. When Jean-Claude was forced to flee the country due to civil unrest, the Macoutes remained relatively passive. The fall of Duvalierism resulted in the disbanding of the MVSN. Some of the former Tonton Macoutes fled the country while many who remained were subject to violent reprisal. In the subsequent elections in 1986, ex-Tonton Macoutes allegedly fired at voters, killing 34, and continued to rebel during the period of political turmoil up until 2000.

Sources: James Ferguson, Papa Doc, Baby Doc: Haiti and the Duvaliers (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1987); Bernard Diederich, Papa Doc & The Tontons Macoutes (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishing, 2005); Richard A.

Haggerty (ed.), Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies (Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 1991); David Nicholls, From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Colour and National Independence in Haiti (New York: Vail-Ballou Press, 1979); Mats Lundhal, "History as an Obstacle to Change: The Case of Haiti," Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, 31:½ (Spring/Summer, 1989); Contributor(s): Tonton Macoutes: The Central Nervous System of Haiti’s Reign of Terror – Repeating Islands Tonton Macoutes: The Central Nervous System of Haiti’s Reign of Terror David Aponte, a research associate for the Council for Hemispheric Affairs, today released a report on the Tonton Macoutes, François Duvalier’s infamous personal militia. Here are some excerpts from the report, with a link to the full text below. Few countries in the hemisphere have suffered through such an extensive run of unqualified repressive regimes and military dictatorships as Haiti.

The nearly thirty years of harsh rule under François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, and his son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier that ended in 1986, are likely the most infamous epoch in the painful history of this small French-Creole nation that occupies the western third of the Caribbean island of La Hispaniola. Certainly, the main tool for the maintenance of the regime’s grasp on the population through much of this period was the “Tonton Macoutes,” renamed in 1971 as the Milice de Voluntaires de la Sécurité Nationale —MVSN (Volunteers for National Security). Although this organization no longer formally exists, its legacy of paramilitary violence and sheer brutality still contorts Haitian modern political and economic cultures. The Birth of Terror In 1959, only two years after becoming president, “Papa Doc” created a paramilitary force that would report only to him and would be fully empowered to use unremitting violence to maintain the new administration’s authority to summarily dispose of its enemies. . . .

The Haitians nicknamed this warlord-led goon squad the “Tonton Macoutes,” after the Creole translation of a common myth, about an “uncle” (Tonton) who kidnaps and punishes obstreperous kids by snaring them in a gunnysack (Macoute) and carrying them off to be consumed at breakfast. . . . The militia consisted mostly of illiterate fanatics that were converted into ruthless zombie-like gunmen. Their straw hats, blue denim shirts, dark glasses and machetes remain indelibly etched in the minds of millions of Haitians. Ever since its establishment, this brutal organization had free rein to act unreservedly, disregarding any ethical or civil rights of the citizenry that might interfere with its indiscriminate violence. They were not accountable to any state branch, court or elected body, but rather only to their leader, “Papa Doc.” The Second Most Feared Man in Haiti The dictator’s hold on power was guaranteed by the secret police’s terror campaign, and usually, the head of the “Macoutes,” was considered to be extremely close to the dictator. . . .

Luckner Cambronne was a particularly fierce head of the “Tonton Macoutes” throughout the 1960’s and the beginning of the 1970’s, for two reasons: first, because he was considered perhaps the most powerful and influential man in Haiti during the transition from “Papa” to “Baby Doc,” and second, because of his unique brand of cruelty that enabled him to become very rich and earned him the nickname “Vampire of the Caribbean.” . . . Luckner climbed rapidly up Haiti’s power structure and he became the chief plotter of the extortions carried out by his henchmen. Later, he profited by supplying corpses and blood to universities and hospitals in the United States. His brutality was manifest whenever there was a shortage of what he considered raw material (corpses). In that case, he did not hesitate to kill innocent people to facilitate the growth of his “industry.” . . . He stated once in the British newspaper The Independent that a “good Duvalierist is prepared to kill his children (for Duvalier) and expects his children to kill their parents for him.” . . .

The militia created a sense of fear through continuous threats against the public as well as frequent random executions. The “Tonton Macoutes” often stoned and burned people alive, regularly following such rites by hanging bodies of their victims in the street as a warning to the population at large. The diversity of the victims was also a measure of the “Macoutes’” cruelty. They could range from a woman in the poorest of neighborhoods who had the temerity to support an opposing politician, all the way to an accommodating foreign diplomat or even a business man who refused to “donate” money for public works (the public works being the pockets of corrupt officials and even the dictator himself). The Role of the U.S. For decades, the situation in Haiti kept deteriorating without any calls for international intervention. Although the United States was a preeminently active and interested participant in the development of Haiti’s political culture, it failed to speak out against such atrocities—not even during human rights-focused administrations such as Jimmy Carter’s—as a result of Cold War logic.

Washington was certainly far more interested in supporting a pro-American tyrant whose purported task was to stop the spread of communism in the region, rather than protecting the Haitian people by supporting a healthy democracy and a responsible authority in Port-au-Prince. Butch Ashton, a business man who made his fortune during the Duvalier dictatorship by establishing corporations such as Citrus (a fruit exporter) and the Toyota dealership in the country’s capital, vehemently claims that the Tonton Macoute militia was trained by the U.S. Marine Corps and that the highest levels of the American government were complicit in this arrangement. The U.S. has been an active supporter, albeit from the shadows, even years after the “Tonton Macoute” reign of violence officially was over. The Human Rights Watch reported on Haiti in 2004 and stated, “The United States, notably, showed little enthusiasm for the prosecution of past abuses. Indeed, it even impeded accountability by removing to the U.S. thousands of documents from military and paramilitary headquarters, allowing notorious abusers to flee Haiti, and repeatedly giving safe haven to paramilitary leaders.” The “Tonton Macoutes”: Legacy and Transformation . . .

After 1991, when Aristide was illegally forced to leave the presidency, the vestiges of the MVSN became known as “attachés,” or savage groups of vigilantes attached to government security forces, or crooked political organizations which had the ability to use force against its foes. Consequently, a number of small paramilitary bodies were organized to work with these mafias as “stability” keepers. A good number of these new bodies were being formed by former “Macoutes.” Many of these militias remained nostalgic for the good old days of Duvalierism, with some even attempting to ignite their own reign of terror. The most feared paramilitary group during the 1990’s emerged as a political presence just as sadistic as the MVSN: the “Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti—FRAPH,” which Toronto Star’s crack journalist Linda Diebel described as modern-Macoutes and not as the political party they claimed to be. . . . These ghosts from the past still torment Haitian and U.S.

policy: last year a group of civic activists accused the Obama administration of turning a blind-eye to the criminal activity being practiced against Aristide backers and supporters of his Fanmi Lavalas party. The group that was trying to prevent the participation of Haiti’s most popular party in the 2010 elections through the use of indiscriminate violence and political pressure was led by a former paramilitary leader convicted in the U.S. for drug trafficking and money laundering, Guy Philippe. There a long history of paramilitary violence in Haiti that seems all but unstoppable, regardless of whatever government may be in charge. As Professor Robert Maguire observed in 2002, “the unabated power struggle among the country’s politicians has been joined by a renewal of the kind of paramilitary violence that the vast majority of Haitians hoped had ended with the disbandment of the Haitian Armed Forces in 1995.” . . . For more go to Image: The painting above, titled “Tonton Macoute” (1989), is by painter Burton Chenet.

Chenet, who trained at Le Centre d’Art in Port au Prince and at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, has a wonderful series of political paintings called “Turbulent Years,” which you can see, together with a sampling of other work, at #img/turbulent years/6.jpg Share this: First Readings 2010: The Dew Breaker - The Tonton Macoutes The TonTon Macoutes The Tonton Macoutes Who were the Tonton Macoutes? François Duvalier became president of Haiti in 1956. During his dictatorship he used the military force of the Tonton Macoutes to ensure power over the people through use of torture and propaganda. Before Duvalier rose to power, he was a doctor and gained the epithet "Papa Doc." The phrase "Tonton Macoutes" translates to "Uncle Gunnysack." In Haitian folklore comes, Uncle Gunnysack out late at night and puts children into his gunnysack. The children are never seen again. The Tonton Macoutes would too come out at night (and even during the day) and take away citizens and dissidents who were never to be seen again.

The Tonton Macoutes are also known as the Militia of National Security Volunteers. Duvalier left office in 1964, but the Tonton Macoutes assisted his son Jean "Baby Doc" Duvalier in securing power. Josiah catalog Provided by Barrymore Bogues, PhD, of Brown's Africana Studies Department. Linguistically isolated households are households in which either no person age 14+ speaks only English at home, or no person age 14+ who speaks a language other than English at home speaks English "very well." Intellectual Diaspora During Duvalier's regime, many of Haiti's intellectuals became expatriates, as they fled to other countries seeking refuge from his reign. Below are maps providing data on Haitian immigration to areas in New York and the United States as a whole. This data was compiled by Brown University Librarian Thomas Stieve using ArcGIS. The Center of Immigration Studies has provided data on Haitians in the United States. how did stieve conduct his Immigration research? "Demographic data was downloaded from U.S. Census and boundaries from esri.com and NYC CSCIC . All layers were imported into ARCmap and demographic data was joined to boundary files.

Locations of the hospital and college mentioned in the story were plotted using a street locator within the application." For more information regarding Stieve's research methodology, review the Library Resource Guide for Spatial Data and GIS and the Library FAQs . Papa Doc's death François Duvalier died April 22, 1971. He was succeeded by his son Jean "Baby Doc" Duvalier. Many Haitians today are unhappy with the way justice has been dealt to the Duvalier family. An article from Reuters published December 8, 1998 explains why the people want justice for "Baby Doc's" crimes. You can find similar articles using Josiah to search through e-Journals. During Haiti's earthquake, "Baby Doc" pledged to donate $8 million dollars to the Red Cross. The January 2010 Earthquake In addition to political turmoil, Haiti has experienced a number of natural disasters. One theory is because much of Haitian land has been razed of trees and shrubbery, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters cause twice as much damage. This is because there is less fortification of the land.

Despite the devastation there is still hope as Brown and many other institutions have extended their hands to help the aid and recovery of Haiti. To find out what Brown is doing to help Haiti recover can be found here . Harkening Back to Dark Days in Haiti - FPIF Foreign Policy In Focus Harkening Back to Dark Days in Haiti The president of Haiti—a country with no external threats, a history of military repression, and an abundance of more pressing problems—is rebuilding the once-banished Haitian military. Print Macoutes from the Duvalier era. Defying widespread opposition and the pressing need for other development projects, Haitian President Michel Martelly is pressing ahead with a plan to recreate Haiti’s military, which has a dark legacy of repression in the Caribbean country. This article is a joint publication of Foreign Policy In Focus and TheNation.com . On October 16, 1993, Alerte Belance was abducted from her home and taken to Titanyen, a small seaside village used by Haiti’s rulers as a mass grave for political opponents. There she received machete chops to her face, neck, and extremities.

Despite her grave injuries, Belance was able to save herself by dragging her mutilated body onto the street and asking for help. Belance’s survival was extraordinary, but not all were so lucky. On January 18, 1994, Wilner Elie, a member of the Papaye Peasant Movement, was knifed to death by a group of masked men in his own home. His 12 children were handcuffed by the assailants and forced to watch helplessly as their father was brutally murdered. Elie and Belance’s tragic stories were not anomalies. Not long ago in Port-au-Prince, decapitated bodies littered the streets, warnings to would-be dissidents. Violent men sexually abused young women seemingly for sport. People were ambushed in their homes and shot to death for attempting to escape. Thousands of Haitians fled in shoddy boats through treacherous waters to the United States, only to be sent back despite outcries from human rights groups. Though it reads like a horror script or dystopian novel, this is not fiction. This was reality for millions of Haitians living under military rule.

And now, as the Haitian government moves to rebuild its once-banished army, some Haitians are wondering whether a sequel is in the works. A Dark Legacy Haiti has a lengthy history of military and state-sanctioned violence. Shortly after coming to power in 1957, the infamous dictator Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, feeling threatened by the regular armed forces, created a paramilitary force to protect himself. Nicknamed the Tonton Macoutes (Uncle Gunnysacks) after an old tale about a bogeyman who abducted unruly children and placed them in gunnysacks to be eaten at breakfast, these men carried out unimaginable murders and sent tremors of fear throughout the nation. Accountable to virtually no one, they continued their reign of terror after Papa Doc’s death and through the rule of his successor and son, Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. After Baby Doc was forced to flee in 1986, the Tonton Macoutes were officially disbanded , but other paramilitaries continued in their footsteps. Meanwhile the military itself continued to interfere in Haiti’s politics.

On September 29, 1991, Jean Betrand-Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected president, was ousted by a military coup just eight months into his presidency. The coup, led by Lieutenant General Raoul Cedras, plunged the nation into a particularly violent and turbulent period. For three years the Haitian military and its paramilitary arm, the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, ran an exceptionally brutal regime , kidnapping, torturing, and murdering supporters of the ousted Aristide. By 1994 the death toll had reached an estimated 5,000 . Following an intervention by the United States, Aristide was restored to power in late 1994 on condition that he implement economic reforms favored by Washington. He dismantled the military the following year. The disbandment of the military did not cure Haiti of all its ills, but the dissolution was followed by two successful transitions of presidential power, in 1996 and 2000.

In 2004, however, a paramilitary force consisting of former soldiers with help from United States, France, and Canada organized a second successful coup against Aristide, who had been elected to a second term in 2000 after serving out his first in 1996. Although another successful transition between presidents began in 2010, the 2004 coup showed that even after their official disbandment, former soldiers were still able to influence political outcomes in Haiti. A Return to Form And now, after two decades in the shadows, the military is back: Haitian President Michel Martelly has followed through on a campaign promise to reconstitute the Haitian military. The new force launched its first operations this February. This has left many Haitians wondering why a country with no external threats, a history of violent, military-led repression against its own citizens, and an abundance of more pressing problems would need—or even want—a new military. “Given the history of Haiti’s military,” warned Mark Weisbrot , its “existence alone could be considered a threat to security.” Martelly’s personal history provides some clues about his own sympathies .

Before he began his political career, Michel Martelly was a provocative konpa singer who went by the name Sweet Micky. During the Duvalier era, he ran a nightclub named Garage that was frequented by military officials and other members of Haiti’s tiny elite. Around this time Martelly befriended Lieutenant Colonel Michel Francois, the man who would later become chief of the secret police under Raoul Cedras. Martelly remained a “favorite” of the thugs who worked for the Duvalier regime and, after its collapse, would even accompany the death squads organized by Francois to murder Aristide supporters. While death squads hunted dissidents by night, Martelly taunted them by day. Lavalas, the massive pro-democracy movement launched by Aristide after Baby Doc was ousted, quickly became the target of Martelly’s biting lyrics. Throughout Aristide’s presidency, Martelly remained an outspoken critic of the president and his supporters, eventually emerging as a politician in his own right. After a hotly contested and controversial election in 2011, Martelly was elected president of Haiti. Later that year, an anonymous Haitian official leaked a document to the Associated Press outlining a plan for the revival of the Haitian military.

Solving the Wrong Problems The document cited several reasons why Haiti supposedly needs to spend $95 million building up a new military force: to provide opportunities for young people, to rebuild Haiti’s infrastructure, to patrol its border with the Dominican Republic, and—perhaps most ominously—to “keep order” during times of chaos. Although Haiti is well within its rights to establish an army, the purpose of a military is not to provide internal security, but to combat external threats. A Haitian official claims that it’s embarrassing to have the United Nations providing security in Haiti. But although its mission in Haiti has been marred by scandal , the UN is training a national police force to provide security and keep order once the peacekeepers finally leave. It’s unclear why a military would be preferable in this regard to a civilian security force. And it’s similarly unclear why Martelly thinks he needs to build a military to create jobs or invest in infrastructure. Haiti is in desperate need of construction workers—even before the 2010 earthquake leveled buildings and destroyed homes, Haiti’s infrastructure was already in a precarious position.

If Martelly truly wanted to provide opportunities for the young people of Haiti, he could initiate a program that would train men and women in construction and create jobs for the multitudes of unemployed Haitians. Instead, the new military will supposedly be rebuilding the country while millions of Haitians continue to languish in poverty. In a country with a sparse amount of cash and a government unable to provide even the most basic necessities to its own population, it seems fiscally irresponsible and morally bankrupt to spend $95 million on rebuilding an army that has such an atrocious record of human rights abuses. The cholera outbreak, food insecurity, and the 500,000 squatters lacking permanent homes are just a few of the litany of problems facing Haiti today. The lack of a military force is not high on that list of priorities. Although Haiti’s elite and powerful seem to support the new military, a poll conducted over five years found that fully 96 percent of Haitians oppose its recreation . Defying the widespread opposition and pressing need for other development projects, Michel Martelly’s plan has finally come to fruition.

Despite assurances from officials that this military force will not have the means to imitate its predecessors, the horrors from the recent past still linger in the minds of those who remember. Haiti is now in danger of reverting back to the days when standing on the wrong side of the ideological fence meant certain death. Nathalie Baptiste is a Haitian-American contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus who lives in the Washington, D.C. area. She holds a BA and MA in International Studies and writes about Latin America and the Caribbean. You can follow her on Twitter at @nhbaptiste . Tonton Macoute Discography at Discogs Tonton Macoute Profile: Tonton Macoute was a progressive jazz/rock band formed in the UK in 1971 from the remaining 4 musicians of Windmill after the death of lead singer/guitarist Dick Scott in a road accident whilst on tour. Both bands were managed by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikely (Matthews Southern Comfort/The Herd/and Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Titch).

The personnel consisted of Paul French-vox and keys, Dave Knowles- vox, sax and flute, Chris Gavin (Gavin Wilkinson)-guitar and bass, and Nigel Reveler-drums and percussion, Paul went on to form Voyager who charted in 1979 with a song entitled Halfway Hotel. They released 3 albums too, before disbanding in 1982. They have recently reformed to release the album Eyecontact. He performs regularly at The Piano, 106 Kensington High St. Dave formed his own band Turbo in the 70s and now lives in Cornwall. Gavin went on to practice fine art and photography, but still plays regularly in the Newbury area. Nigel has a successful career within the record industry and currently runs a distribution company Active Media. In Haitian Creole mythology Tonton Macoute (Uncle Gunnysack) was the name of a boogeyman who walked the streets after dark, and would kidnap children who stayed out too late. He stowed them away in his gunnysack, never to be seen again. It was also the name of Haitian dictator Papa Doc Duvallier's brutal presidential guard.

Sites: Tonton Macoutes Encyclopedia > History > Latin America and the Caribbean > Haiti History Tonton Macoutes Tonton Macoutes (tŏntŏnˈ mäkōtˈ) [ key ] [Haitian Creole, = bogeymen], personal police force of dictator Francois Duvalier (Papa Doc) of Haiti. Unpaid volunteers who were directly responsible only to Duvalier, they were given virtual license to torture, kill, and extort. They murdered hundreds of Duvalier's opponents, sometimes publicly hanging the corpses as warnings. After Papa Doc's death (1971), his son Jean-Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc) changed their name to the National Security Volunteers, though they continued to terrorize the citizenry. After the overthrow of Baby Doc (1986), although officially disbanded, the group continued to spread terror. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. See more Encyclopedia articles on: Haiti History

Question: In which country were the Tonton Macoute active?
Answer: HAITI